Change And Challenge

Jeff Taylor has been covering European basketball since 1997, when he first worked on the television program SLAM. He has been a basketball writer and broadcaster since that time, traveling the continent and covering the game in depth for FIBA Europe since its launch in 2003.

One thing great teams must do to remain competitive is to undergo change.

Three EuroLeague Women clubs to do so in recent times have been Sparta&K M. R. Vidnoje, Ros Casares Valencia and Bourges Basket.

Clubs don't always get it right.

Several months ago, immediately after Jordi Fernandez led Ros Casares into the Quarter-Finals, the Valencia team showed the coach the door and put Natalia Hejkova in charge.

Hejkova, four times a championship-winning coach in the EuroLeague Women as coach of Ruzomberok (1999 and 2000) and Sparta&K (2007 and 2008), steered the Spanish team past Bourges and into the Final Four.

Point guard Silvia Dominguez, who signed from arch-rivals Perfumerias Avenida, is one of the many new faces at Ros Casares this season

Ros came up short of the title, though, and ended up second to Perfumerias Avenida in Spain's Liga Femenina.

This season, despite winning plenty of games, Ros looked like a side that was not reaching its full potential.

At the end of last season, long-time boss Pierre Vincent announced he was leaving the team to coach the ASVEL men's team and Bourges appointed Valerie Garnier as his replacement.

The French giants, who welcomed Celine Dumerc back to the club following her two-year spell with UMMC Ekaterinburg, didn't have the services of veteran center Emmeline Ndongue until January because of the Achilles tendon injury she suffered at the EuroBasket Women.

The team has gradually improved under Garnier, who will serve as assistant to Vincent at the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Ankara, and Ndongue has brought leadership and a combative quality to the side that has made it more formidable.

"At the beginning of the season, it was really tough for us because we had a lot of injuries, sickness, new coach and new girls so it was a mess," Bourges forward Endene Miyem said.

"Now, it's better. We're working to improve our collective play and I think it's working."

Ndongue has made a big difference, both with her basketball ability and her leadership.

"Some of us knew Pierre Vincent really well, but this is just life in basketball," Ndongue said.

"Changes happen and you just have to get used to it. Now, I think we're in a good way.

"I hope we can get better and go further, but we'll see."

The beginning of the season "was a mess" but later things started falling into place for Bourges, says forward Endene Miyem